International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 161167

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpvp

Ultimate analysis of PWR prestressed concrete containment

subjected to internal pressure
Hsuan-Teh Hu *, Yu-Hon Lin
Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC
Received 27 July 2004; received in revised form 24 January 2006; accepted 6 February 2006

Abstract
Numerical analyses are carried out by using the ABAQUS finite element program to predict the ultimate pressure capacity and the failure mode
of the PWR prestressed concrete containment at Maanshan nuclear power plant. Material nonlinearity such as concrete cracking, tension
stiffening, shear retention, concrete plasticity, yielding of prestressing tendon, yielding of steel reinforcing bar and degradation of material
properties due to high temperature are all simulated with proper constitutive models. Geometric nonlinearity due to finite deformation has also
been considered. The results of the analysis show that when the prestressed concrete containment fails, extensive cracks take place at the apex of
the dome, the junction of the dome and cylinder, and the bottom of the cylinder connecting to the base slab. In addition, the ultimate pressure
capacity of the containment is higher than the design pressure by 86%.
q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ultimate analysis; Pressurized water reactor; Prestressed concrete containment; Internal pressure

1. Introduction
Since the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in
1979, it has become necessary to perform failure analysis and
calculate the ultimate pressure capability of the nuclear reactor
containment for the safety assessment of nuclear power plants
[13]. The containment structures in service at Taiwan, ROC
were built in the late 1970 or early 1980. Since then, nonlinear
material constitutive models and nonlinear finite element
solution techniques have been continuously and successfully
developed [412]. Therefore, it is possible to predict the
ultimate pressure capability of the nuclear reactor containment
more accurately than before by utilizing the nonlinear finite
element method [1315]. The Atomic Energy Council (AEC)
at Taiwan, ROC has run several studies toward the failure
analysis of containment structures. As one of the research
projects sponsored by AEC, the aim of this paper is to employ
the nonlinear finite element program ABAQUS [16] to
investigate the ultimate pressure capacity and the failure
mode of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) prestressed
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C886 6 2757575x63168; fax: C886 6
2358542.
E-mail address: hthu@mail.ncku.edu.tw (H.-T. Hu).

0308-0161/$ - see front matter q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpvp.2006.02.030

concrete containment at Maanshan nuclear power plant,

Taiwan, ROC.
In the paper, the geometry and finite element mesh of the
containment are reviewed first. Then, material properties of
reinforcing steel bar, prestressing tendon and concrete are
given and proper constitutive models are introduced to
simulate the nonlinear behaviour of these materials such as
concrete cracking, tension stiffening, shear retention, concrete
plasticity, yielding of reinforcing steel bar, yielding of
prestressing tendon and degradation of material properties
due to high temperature. Finally, failure analyses of the
containment subjected to internal pressure are carried out and
important conclusions are given.
2. Containment geometry and finite element mesh
The PWR prestressed concrete containment at Maanshan
nuclear power plant is composed of a circular base slab, an
upright cylinder and a hemispherical dome (Fig. 1). To
simplify the analysis, the tendon gallery, equipment hatches
and penetrations on the containment are not considered and the
structural geometry is assumed to be axisymmetric. The base
slab of the containment is embedded in the soil and the
dimensions of the containment are shown in Fig. 1.
At the cylinder wall, the prestressing tendons are placed in
the meridional and circumferential directions of the containment. At the dome, the prestressing tendons are placed

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H.-T. Hu, Y.-H. Lin / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 161167

the structure is analyzed and the boundary conditions imposed

on the symmetry planes are displacements in the circumferential direction, rotations in the radial direction and rotations in
the z-direction to be zero. For simplicity, the lateral pressure
applied to the base slab due to soil is not considered.
In the numerical simulation, eight-node shell elements (six
degrees of freedom per node) are used to model the parts of the
dome and cylinder. The formulation of the eight-node shell
allows transverse shear deformation and these shear flexible
shell elements can be used for both thick and thin shell analysis
[16]. While 20-node solid elements (three degrees of freedom
per node) are used to model the base slab (Fig. 2(b)), special
purpose gap elements are used to link the bottom of the base
slab to the ground. The gap elements allow the contact surfaces
between the base slab and the ground to remain closed or open
but not to penetrate each other.
3. Material properties and constitutive models

Fig. 1. Geometry and dimensions of the PWR prestressed concrete containment

of Maanshan nuclear power plant.

in the circumferential direction and the directions parallel to xand y-coordinates (Fig. 2(a)). Most of the steel reinforcing bars
are placed in an axisymmetric manner in the containment but
some steel reinforcement layers near the apex of the dome and
in the base slab are placed in the directions parallel to the x- and
y-axes. Because some prestressing tendons and some steel
reinforcing bars are not placed axisymmetrically, the deformation of the containment is no longer axisymmetric and has
four planes of symmetry (Fig. 2(a)). As a result, only 1/8 part of

The structural materials used in the containment can be

divided into three groups, which are steel reinforcing bar,
prestressing tendon and concrete. The bond between steel and
concrete is assumed to be perfect. The material properties of all
the materials and their constitutive models used by ABAQUS
are briefly discussed in the following sections.
3.1. Steel reinforcing bar
The reinforcement used in the containment structure is
ASTM A-615 Grade 60 steel with yield stress
sy Z 413:7 MPa

(1)

and its elastic modulus is assumed to be [17]

Es Z 200 GPa

(2)

The stressstrain curve of the reinforcing bar is assumed to

be elastic-perfectly plastic.
3.2. Prestressing tendon
The prestressing tendon used in the containment is
composed of 37 Grade 250 strands. The diameter of each
strand is 1.52 cm. The average tensile force is 6552 kN for the
tendons in the meridian direction and is 6775 kN for the
tendons in the circumferential direction. Due to the lack of
material test data, the nonlinear stressstain curve of the strand
given by Nilson and Winter [18] is adopted and simplified to a
piecewise linear curve as shown in Fig. 3. In addition, the
elastic modulus of the tendon is assumed to be:
Es Z 189:6 GPa

Fig. 2. 1/8 model of the PWR prestressed concrete containment of Maanshan

nuclear power plant.

(3)

In ABAQUS, the prestressing tendon and the steel

reinforcement are treated as equivalent uniaxial materials,
which are smeared through the element section. In order to
properly model the constitutive behaviours of the tendon and
the reinforcement, the cross sectional area, spacing, position

H.-T. Hu, Y.-H. Lin / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 161167

163

Fig. 3. Stressstrain curve for prestressing tendon.

and orientation of each layer of tendon or steel bar within each

element need to be specified.
3.3. Concrete
The concrete used in the containment structure has an
uniaxial compressive strength fc0 given as
fc0 Z 34:47 MPa

(4)

Under uniaxial compression, the concrete strain 3 0

corresponding to the peak stress fc0 is usually around the
range of 0.0020.003. A representative value suggested by ACI
Committee 318 [17] is:
30 Z 0:003

(5)

Fig. 4. Concrete failure surface in plane stress.

(by the crack detection surface), the orientation of the cracks is

stored. Damaged elasticity is then used to model the existing
cracks.
When plastic deformation occurs, there should be a certain
parameter to guide the expansion of the yield surface. A
commonly used approach is to relate the multidimensional
stress and strain conditions to a pair of quantities, namely, the
effective stress sc and effective strain 3c, such that results
obtained following different loading paths can all be correlated
by means of the equivalent uniaxial stressstrain curve. The
stressstrain relationship proposed by Saenz [20] has been
widely adopted as the uniaxial stressstrain curve for concrete
and it has the following form

The Poissons ratio nc of concrete under uniaxial compressive stress ranges from about 0.15 to 0.22, with a representative
value of 0.19 or 0.20 [8]. In this study, the Poissons ratio of
concrete is assumed to be

sc Z

nc Z 0:2

where

(6)

The uniaxial tensile strength fc0 of concrete is difficult to

measure and is normally taken as [8]:
p
ft0 Z 0:33 fc0 MPa
(7)
The initial modulus of elasticity of concrete Ec is highly
correlated to its compressive strength and can be calculated
with reasonable accuracy from the empirical equation [17]:
p
Ec Z 4700 fc0 MPa
(8)
It should be noted that in Eqs. (7) and (8) the unit of fc0 is in
MPa.
Under different combinations of loading, the failure
strengths of concrete are different from that under uniaxial
condition. However, the maximum strength envelope under
multiple stress conditions seems to be largely independent of
load path [19]. In ABAQUS, a MohrCoulomb type
compression surface combined with a crack detection surface
are used to model the failure surface of concrete (Fig. 4). When
the principal stress components of concrete are dominantly
compressive, the response of concrete is modeled by an
elasticplastic theory with associate flow and isotropic
hardening rule. In tension, once cracking is defined to occur

1 C R C RE K2

RZ

RE Rs K1 1
K ;
R3
R3 K12

 
3c
30

Ec 3 c

 2

K2RK1

RE Z

Ec
;
E0

3c
30

E0 Z

CR

 3

(9)

3c
30

fc0
30

and RsZ4, R3Z4 may be used [11]. In the analysis, Eq. (9) is
taken as the equivalent uniaxial stressstrain curve for concrete
and approximated by several piecewise linear segments as
shown in Fig. 5.
When cracking of concrete takes place, a smeared model is
used to represent the discontinuous macrocrack behaviour. It is

Fig. 5. Equivalent uniaxial stressstrain curves for concrete.

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Table 1
Material properties for concrete and steel at various temperatures [22]
Materials

Fig. 6. Tension stiffening model.

known that the cracked concrete of a reinforced concrete

element can still carry some tensile stress in the direction
normal to the crack, which is termed tension stiffening [8]. In
this study, a simple descending line is used to model this
tension stiffening phenomenon (Fig. 6). The default value of
the strain 3* at which the tension stiffening stress reduced to
zero is [16]:
3 * Z 0:001

(10)

During the postcracking stage, the cracked reinforced

concrete can still transfer shear forces through aggregate
interlock or shear friction, which is termed shear retention [8].
Assume the shear modulus of intact concrete is Gc. The
reduced shear modulus G^ of cracked concrete can be expressed
as
G^ Z mGc

Concrete
Youngs modulus Ec (GPa)
Poissons ratio nc
Tensile strength ft0 (MPa)
Compressive strength fc0 (MPa)
Strain at compressive strength 30
Steel
Youngs modulus Es (GPa)
Yield stress sy (MPa)
Ultimate stress su (MPa)
Strain at ultimate stress

Temperatures (8C)
21

121

371

33.1
0.2
3.44
46.9
0.0023

15.9
0.2
2.43
33.1
0.00297

8.3
0.2
1.72
23.4
0.00372

214
459
683
0.045

197
390
628
0.045

177
354
492
0.045

properties at elevated temperature to those at room temperature

as given in Table 1 [21] are used to linearly scale down the
material properties in the high temperature analyses. The
material properties used in analysis in the room temperature
(21 8C) condition and at elevated temperature (121 and 371 8C)
conditions are given in Table 2. In this paper, other than
specified, all the analyses are assumed to be carried out at the
room temperature (21 8C) condition.
4. Numerical analysis

(11a)
4.1. Ultimate analysis of the PWR containment subjected
to internal pressure

and
m Z 1K3=3max

(11b)

where 3 is the strain normal to the crack direction and 3max is

the strain at which the parameter m reduces to zero (Fig. 7). In
ABAQUS, 3max is usually assumed to be a very large value, i.e.
mZ1 (full shear retention). In this investigation, other than
specified, the default values for tension stiffening parameter
3*Z0.001 and for shear retention parameter 3*Z1 are used.
3.4. Material properties at elevated temperature
All the aforementioned material properties for steel and
concrete are tested or assumed under room temperature
conditions. In the case of a nuclear accident, the containment
will usually be subjected to elevated temperature and internal
pressure. Therefore, the degradation of material properties due
to high temperature should be considered. Owing to the
material properties of Maanshan nuclear power plant at
elevated temperatures being unavailable, the ratios of material

Fig. 7. Shear retention parameter.

The loads applied to the containment include the prestressing forces from the tendons and the internal pressure. In the
finite element analysis, the prestressing forces from the tendons
are simulated with initial stresses and applied to the containment first. After the structure is in an equilibrium condition, the
internal pressure p is then applied to the containment up to
failure. According to the Final Safety Analysis Report [22], the
Table 2
Material properties used for PWR prestressed concrete containment in
numerical analysis
Materials
Concrete
Youngs modulus Ec (GPa)
Poissons ratio nc
Tensile strength ft0 (MPa)
Compressive strength fc0 (MPa)
Strain at compressive strength 30
Tension stiffening parameter 3*
Shear retention parameter m
Reinforcing bar
Youngs modulus Es (GPa)
Yield stress sy (MPa)
Prestressing tendon
Youngs modulus Es (GPa)
Yield stress sy (MPa)
Ultimate stress su (MPa)
Strain at ultimate stress su

Temperatures (8C)
21

121

371

27.79
0.2
1.95
34.47
0.003
0.001
1

13.31
0.2
1.38
24.33
0.00387
0.001
1

6.95
0.2
0.97
17.24
0.00485
0.001
1

199.9
413.7

183.8
351.6

165.8
318.5

189.6
1207
1724
0.05

174.3
1025
1486
0.05

157.1
929
1241
0.05

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165

under the ultimate pressure, the base slab tends to lift. Most of
the deformations take place in the dome. In addition, because
of the stress concentration, cracks are likely to occur near the
apex of the dome, the junction of the dome and cylinder, and
the bottom of the cylinder.
4.2. Influence of material nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity on the ultimate pressure capacity of containment

Fig. 8. Influence of material nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity on the

ultimate pressure capacity of containment.

containment accident pressure load is 414 kPa, which is greater

than the calculated peak pressure 338 kPa occurring as the
result of any rupture of the reactor coolant system or main
steam system. To fulfill the requirements of NRC Regulatory
1.18, the accident pressure load is further multiplied by a factor
1.15 to obtain a design pressure load 476 kPa [22].
Fig. 8 shows the internal pressure p versus the displacement
of node 1 (at the apex of the containment) in the z-direction by
considering different combinations of material nonlinearity and
geometric nonlinearity. When both material nonlinearity and
geometric nonlinearity are considered, the ultimate internal
pressure pu of the containment is 886 kPa, which is about 86%
higher than the design pressure 476 kPa. The deformation
shape of the containment under the ultimate internal pressure
condition is shown in Fig. 9(a) and the crack patterns of the
concrete at the inner and outer sides of the containment are
shown in Fig. 9(b). From these figures we can observe that

Fig. 9. Deformation shape and crack patterns of containment at the ultimate

internal pressure puZ886 kPa.

Fig. 8 shows the loaddisplacement curves of node 1 by

considering different combinations of material nonlinearity and
geometric nonlinearity. When all the materials of the containment, i.e. concrete, steel reinforcing bar and prestressing
tendon, have a linear elastic response, the result of analysis
(with p!1400 kPa) by employing the geometric nonlinear
formulation is almost the same as that by using the geometric
linear formulation. These two solutions may deviate when the
internal pressure of the containment p is greater than 1400 kPa.
However, that is far beyond the internal pressure of interest pZ
886 kPa. Therefore, it can be concluded that when the
containment fails, the deformation of the containment is still
in a small stage and the geometric nonlinear effect is
negligible.
4.3. Influence of tension stiffening on the ultimate pressure
capacity of containment
Fig. 10 shows the load-displacement curves of node 1
obtained by using different tension stiffening parameter 3*
(Fig. 6). When 3* is set to a very small value close to the crack
strain 3cr Z ft0 =Ec of concrete, i.e. no tension stiffening, the
ultimate pressure capacity of containment is 848 kPa, which
should be the lower bound of the ultimate pressure. When the
tension stiffening phenomenon is considered, the resulting
ultimate pressure 886 kPa of the containment for 3*Z0.001 is
the same as that for 3*Z0.002. Hence, as long as tension
stiffening is properly taken into consideration, the influence of
tension stiffening parameter on the ultimate pressure capacity
of containment may not be significant.

Fig. 10. Influence of tension stiffening on the ultimate pressure capacity of

containment.

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H.-T. Hu, Y.-H. Lin / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 161167

Fig. 11. Influence of shear retention on the ultimate pressure capacity of

containment.

Fig. 13. Influence of temperature on the ultimate pressure capacity of

containment.

4.4. Influence of shear retention on the ultimate pressure

capacity of containment

than that with base slab. However, the ultimate pressure

capacities for these two analyses are almost the same (0.5%
difference). Under the ultimate pressure condition, the crack
patterns for these two analyses are very similar except that the
analysis without base slab has more cracks at the bottom of the
cylinder [23]. Hence, for a rough and quick estimation of
the ultimate load and the crack pattern, the base slab may be
neglected.

Fig. 11 shows the load-displacement curves of node 1 obtained

by using full shear retention and no shear retention. For full shear
retention, the parameter m is selected to be 1 (Fig. 7), and the shear
modulus of cracked concrete is assumed to be the same as that of
intact concrete. For no shear retention, the parameter m is selected
to be 0, and the shear modulus of cracked concrete is assumed to
be zero. From the figure we can see that the loaddisplacement
curves of these two extreme conditions are very close and similar.
In addition, the difference of the ultimate pressure capacity for
these two cases is small and within 0.5%. Hence, it can be
concluded that shear retention has very little influence on the
ultimate pressure capacity of containment.
4.5. Influence of base slab on the ultimate pressure capacity
of containment
In previous sections, the containment in numerical analysis
includes dome, cylinder and base slab. From Fig. 9 we can
observe that under the ultimate internal pressure condition, the
base slab has small deformation and major cracks occur at the
dome and the bottom of cylinder. Hence, for the sake of saving
computer time, it may be interesting to perform the finite element
analysis again without the base slab and assume the cylinder to be
clamped to the ground directly. Fig. 12 shows the load
displacement curves of the containment with and without base
slab. It can be observed that the curve without base slab is stiffer

4.6. Influence of temperature on the ultimate pressure capacity

of containment
In this section, numerical analyses are carried out at the
elevated temperature conditions (121 and 371 8C). For the sake
of simplicity, heat transfer studies are not performed and the
entire containment is assumed to be subjected to the same
elevated temperature. Fig. 13 shows that the ultimate pressure
capacity of the containment is 689 kPa under 121 8C
temperature and is 472 kPa under 371 8C temperature. In
addition, the stiffness of the containment is reduced with
increasing temperature. From Tables 1 and 2, we can find that
the degradations of the ultimate pressure capacity and the
stiffness of the containment are primarily due to the weakening
of concrete compressive strength fc0 . It should be noted that the
ultimate pressure capacity of the containment under 371 8C
temperature would be lower than the design load of 476 kPa.
5. Conclusions
From the nonlinear finite element analysis of the PWR
prestressed concrete containment at Maanshan nuclear power
plant, the following conclusions may be drawn:

Fig. 12. Influence of base slab on the ultimate pressure capacity of containment.

(1) The ultimate pressure capacity of the containment is

886 kPa, which is about 86% higher than the design
pressure of 476 kPa. Under the ultimate pressure condition, cracks are likely to occur near the apex of the dome,
the junction of the dome and cylinder, and the bottom of
the cylinder.
(2) When the containment fails, the deformation of the
containment is still in a small stage and the geometric
nonlinear effect can be negligible.

H.-T. Hu, Y.-H. Lin / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 161167

(3) As long as tension stiffening is properly taken into

consideration, the influence of tension stiffening parameter
on the ultimate pressure capacity of containment may not
be significant.
(4) Shear retention has very little influence on the ultimate
pressure capacity of containment.
(5) For a rough and quick estimation of the ultimate load and
the crack pattern, the base slab may be excluded from the
ultimate analysis of the containment and the cylinder can
be assumed to be clamped to the ground directly.
(6) The ultimate pressure capacity and the stiffness of the
containment are significantly influenced by elevated
temperature.

Acknowledgements
This research work was financially supported by the Atomic
Energy Council of the Republic of China under Grant
842001NRD016.
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